BURLINGTON, Mass., Nuance Communications, Inc., a leading supplier of speech solutions, today announced that in conjunction with other leading healthcare technology companies, it is co- launching an alliance aimed at educating 500,000 US physicians about opportunities aligned with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The Electronic Health Record (EHR) Stimulus Alliance, spearheaded by Allscripts, includes Cisco, Citrix, Dell, Intel, Intuit Microsoft and Nuance, and aims to deliver hundreds of virtual and physical education programs for physicians in cities across the U.S.

"The EHR Stimulus Alliance is a unified movement toward turning the national dialogue surrounding the EHR transition into action," said John Shagoury, president, Nuance Healthcare. "Each of the partners involved has unique solutions that are crucial to EHR implementation. In our case, because most doctors speak at least three times faster than they type, speech recognition technology helps increase the meaningful use and efficiency of EHRs by decreasing physician reliance on the keyboard and mouse. By providing speech recognition as an EHR documentation option, medical records are more complete with detailed patient history and a care plan; additionally, they are not reduced to only point-and-click templates void of physician narrative."

The EHR Stimulus Tour will provide actionable information for physicians via executive briefings, roundtables, trade show presentations, webcasts and local meetings with Alliance experts and medical groups that have already successfully adopted EHRs. Surveys indicate that many physicians do not understand the details of the federal EHR incentive program, including how much money they are eligible to receive, when it will be allocated and how they can qualify. The Tour will answer these questions, as well as provide opportunities for clinicians to learn about complementary EHR capabilities enabled by speech technology that can extend the value in an EHR investment.

"Speech has already proven to be a key component in the success of the electronic healthcare revolution by streamlining the adoption process for new EHR users who are accustomed to dictating patient documentation. As a pioneer in this space, Nuance will lend a wealth of information and expertise to the Alliance that will directly benefit the 500,000 physicians we hope to reach," said Glen Tullman, chief executive officer, Allscripts. "Now, more than ever, it's critical that healthcare industry leaders and innovators join forces, share ideas, collaborate and educate to ensure that physicians not only take advantage of the stimulus incentives, but successfully utilize electronic health records to improve our healthcare system."

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